Genesis 7:4

4 In seven days I will send rain to the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. I will wipe off the face of the earth every living creature that I have made."

Genesis 7:4 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 7:4

For yet seven days
Or one week more, after the above orders were given, which, the Jews say, were for the mourning at Methuselah's death; others, that they were an additional space to the one hundred and twenty given to the old world for repentance; in which time some might truly repent, finding that the destruction of the world was very near, and who might be saved from everlasting damnation, though not from perishing in the flood: but it rather was a space of time proper for Noah to have, to settle himself and family, and all the creatures in the ark, and dispose of everything there, in the best manner, for their sustenance and safety: and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty
nights:
this was not an ordinary but an extraordinary rain, in which the power and providence of God were eminently concerned, both with respect to the continuance of it, and the quantity of water that fell: and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off
the face of the earth:
not every substance that has a vegetative life, as plants, herbs, and trees, which were not destroyed, see ( Genesis 8:11 ) but every substance that has animal life, as fowls, cattle, creeping things, and men.

Genesis 7:4 In-Context

2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal (a male and a female of each) and one pair of every kind of unclean animal (a male and a female).

3 Also, take seven pairs of every kind of bird (a male and a female of each) to preserve animal life all over the earth after the flood.

4 In seven days I will send rain to the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. I will wipe off the face of the earth every living creature that I have made."

5 So Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him.

6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood came to the earth.